Trivia / Top Gun: Maverick

• Actor Allusion: Maverick notes that he can't sail, to which Penny incredulously tells him that he's in the Navy, which echoes a similar exchange from A Few Good Men.
• Actor Leaves, Character Dies: Meg Ryan didn't reprise her role as Carole Bradshaw from Top Gun. Thus, she's simply mentioned to have died from cancer in between the two films.
• Actor-Shared Background: Iceman was made a survivor of various diseases who now has trouble speaking to reflect Val Kilmer's health history (namely his recovery from throat cancer) since the original.
• All-Star Cast:
  • The Japanese dub, big time, and invoked by Toshiyuki Morikawa (Maverick) himself in his Twitter account, as that dub feature one hell of a cast, formed by many young and veteran Anime voice actors, including Mamoru Miyano as Rooster, Yūichi Nakamura as Hangman, Maaya Uchida as Phoenix, Shunsuke Takeuchi as Bob, Subaru Kimura as Payback, Yūma Uchida as Fanboy, Hiroki Tochi as Iceman, Hiroaki Hirata as Goose (in flashbacks), Kenta Miyake as Hondo, Yasuyuki Kase as Cyclone, Taiten Kusunoki as Warlock, Inori Minase as Amelia Benjamin, Takako Honda as Penny Benjamin, Takayuki Sugo as Adm. Cain and Yoji Ueda as the intro narrator.
  • The same goes for the Latin American Spanish dub, minus the using your local air force for announcing the dub voice cast, as it features many young and veteran voice actors: Arturo Mercado Jr. (Maverick), Alan Bravo (Rooster), Carlos Segundo (Adm. Cain), Irwin Daayán (Hangman), Mireya Mendoza (Phoenix), José Antonio Macías (Goose in flashbacks), Alejandro Orozco (Payback), Héctor Emmanuel Gómez (Coyote), Óscar Flores (Iceman), Dan Osorio (Hondo), Raúl Anaya (Cyclone), Idzi Dutkiewicz (Warlock), Erica Edwards (Penny Benjamin), and Mildred Barrera (Carole Bradshaw in post-mortem flashbacks).
• Approval of God: After Anthony Edwards saw the film, he stated "Mission accomplished".
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Jon Hamm loved the first film since he saw it at age 15 and gladly accepted to be in the film without even reading the script.
• Backed by the Pentagon:
  • Just as with the original, the sequel is very US military-friendly and has benefitted from extensive support of the US Defense Department, with filming taking place on US military bases and on two Nimitz-class aircraft carriers with real F/A-18E & F Super Hornet fighter/attack jets (the Fs are the two-seaters). Further, the sequel received even more support than the original, because most of the naval aviation brass were inspired to join by the first film, and were more than happy to throw what they could into the second one.
  • The US Navy helped the production secure one of the few largely intact F-14 Tomcats still in existence^note Most US Tomcats were dismantled and many vital parts were shredded to prevent Iran from getting them through the black market, dismantle and ship it to the shooting location, and restore it enough so that it could be towed around with actors sitting in the cockpit.
  • Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works division helped design the fictional Darkstar plane, which is why it features official branding and logos on screen. Notably their input was so well made that it caused a Chinese spy satellite to divert its course to take a look at it.
  • The same happens in the Japanese announcement revealing the Japanese dub cast, as not only the Top Gun Anthem is played by the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force Orchestra, but we also see Toshiyuki Morikawa himself climbing inside a F-2 Viper Zero.
  • The French Navy couldn't resist putting an ad to enlist in its Naval Aviation branch before screenings of the film in the country.
• Banned in China: With the restoration of the Taiwanese and Japanese flag emblems on Maverick's jacket and Tencent withdrawing their funding (as they don't want to risk landing in hot water with the CCP for giving their sworn enemy a positive image), the chances of the film being released in mainland China were always going to be slim to none.
• California Doubling: A strange case where scenes were shot in the real Top Gun base at Naval Air Station (NAS) Fallon in Nevada, but the base itself is doubling for NAS North Island in San Diego, California which was also used for some scenes. Additional locations include Naval Air Weapons Station China Lakes and NAS Whidbey Island northwest of Seattle.
• The Cast Show Off:
  • Tom Cruise, as usual. Notably, he is a licensed pilot and is shown actually flying his real-life personal P-51 Mustang in the final shot with Penny (Jennifer Connelly).
  • Miles Teller also gets to show off his musical talents - previously displayed prominently in Whiplash - when he channels Anthony Edwards's Goose and performs "Great Balls of Fire" on a piano in Penny's bar. Paramount even released the extended sequence video officially on YouTube.
• Cast the Expert: Most of the extras in the Hard Deck bar scenes are real navy pilots. They were filmed in a set built in Breaker’s Beach, adjacent to the San Diego's Bay Navy installations.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Glen Powell was cast as Hangman after losing out on Rooster to Miles Teller.
• Disowned Adaptation: On the other hand, Ridley Scott was not impressed with this movie, saying that the first movie was more original.
• Dyeing for Your Art:
  • The actors had to be trained to ride in F-18s and withstand higher G-forces (on the original, only Cruise managed it, and most footage of the other actors in the cockpits are composites because they got sick right after takeoff). Many prospects passed on the movie for that reason. In addition to this, the actors also had to learn how to operate and troubleshoot their own camera equipment while in the Hornets while also directing themselves in the air, since the film crew could obviously not be in the air with them.
  • The cast also worked out extensively and lifted weights on location to look good for the dog fight football sequence. Lewis Pullman passed on this because he wore a shirt for the scene and had fun teasing his castmates over all their effort as he lounged between takes.
• Executive Meddling: The large patch on the back of Maverick's leather jacket had the Japanese and Taiwanese flags edited out at the "suggestion" of Tencent, which provided a large chunk of the film's financing. When Tencent pulled its funding from the film (upon realizing that it glorifies the US Armed Forces), the patch was restored to its original appearance.
• In Memoriam: The ending credits includes a dedication to Tony Scott, the first film's director, who died nearly 10 years before the film's release. According to Bruckheimer, his brother Ridley Scott found it a beautiful tribute to his memory.
• Missing Trailer Scene: The scene where Maverick arrives at TOPGUN and sees his F-14 as a gate guardian, with his name under its canopy and his kill count under the nose is not shown in the movie.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw appeared in the first film as a child, played by twins Aaron and Adam Weiss. Miles Teller plays him as an adult here.
  • For the French dub, Cruise's usual dubbing voice since Interview with the Vampire, Jean-Philippe Puymartin, replaced the late Patrick Poivey (who voiced Maverick in 1986 as well as other roles of Cruise in The '80s, he was otherwise most famous for dubbing Bruce Willis). Poivey passed away in 2020 from a stroke.
  • In the European Spanish dub, Iceman is voiced by Juan Antonio Bernal, rather than Luis Fenton from the previous film.
• Production Posse:
  • Tom Cruise has previously worked with director Joseph Kosinski on Oblivion and writer/director Christopher McQuarrie on Valkyrie, Edge of Tomorrow, The Mummy and the Mission: Impossible Film Series.
  • Kosinski previously directed Miles Teller and Jennifer Connelly in Only the Brave, and would continue working with the former shortly afterwards in Spiderhead.
• Product Placement:
  • As the mission to destroy the uranium depot begins, Hondo (Bashir Salah) keeps track of the 2:30 mission timer (the time needed to infiltrate and destroy the depot before fighters intercept the team) using an IWC stopwatch, seen in close detail at several points during the mission.
  • The film also makes sure you see the Lockheed Martin Logo good and close on the joystick when Maverick test pilots the Darkstar. Their Skunk Works logo is also displayed prominently on the plane's tail.
• Promoted Fanboy: Jerry Bruckheimer noted most of the Navy pilots involved with the movie were ones who enlisted after watching Top Gun.
• Reality Subtext: Val Kilmer really was battling throat cancer while shooting this film and he really did end up losing his voice because of it.
• Real-Life Relative: In the Japanese dub, Phoenix and Fanboy's voice actors, Maaya Uchida and Yūma Uchida, are siblings in Real Life.
• The Red Stapler: After the film's release, many young men began to grow mustaches similar to the one Rooster sports.
• Release Date Change: The original release date of July 12th, 2019, was pushed back to June 26th, 2020 due to extensive visual effects and complicated flight scenes. Then it was pushed back once again to December 23rd, due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, then again to November 19, 2021, then finally to May 27, 2022, which was one of the dates for Cruise's similarly moved around Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning. The delays were so extensive that the movie ultimately opened mere weeks before director Joseph Kosinski's next film, Spiderhead.
• Role Reprise:
  • Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer reprise their roles as Peter "Maverick" Mitchell and Thomas "Iceman" Kazansky respectively, over three decades after the first film.
  • The same goes in the Japanese dub, when Toshiyuki Morikawa, Hiroki Tochi, Hiroaki Hirata and Eri Saito who voiced Maverick, Iceman, Goose (at least in flashbacks), and the latter's wife Carole (also in flashbacks, as she died as well) in the TV Tokyo dub of the first film, also reprise their roles.
  • Ditto in the Latin American Spanish dub, Arturo Mercado Jr., José Antonio Macías, Mildred Barrera and Oscar Flores returns as Maverick, Goose, Carole (the latter two in post-mortem flashbacks, especially in Carole's case) and Iceman from the Mexican dub of the first film.
• Schedule Slip: The original release date was July 12, 2019 but was pushed back to June 20, 2020 to allow the producers more time to work on the flight sequences. Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic that afflicted much of 2020 and 2021 the film saw three further delays that ultimately pushed it out to May 27, 2022.
• Separated-at-Birth Casting: Looking at Miles Teller in this film and Anthony Edwards in 1986, you'll really believe they are son and father. The mustache helps.
• Sequel Gap: The film came out 36 years after Top Gun.
• The Shelf of Movie Languishment: The film has seen several delays, originally scheduled for release in July of 2019, it required another year for VFX work, so it got pushed back to June 2020 and then the COVID-19 Pandemic happened, resulting in another delay to November of 2021, 2.5 years after it was originally scheduled to be released. Which then became nearly a full three years following a further delay to May 2022. Despite the negative associations of this trope, the film was ultimately a resounding critical and box office success, with some box office prognosticators suggesting it benefited from the prolonged anticipation and may have earned more than it would have had it released normally in a COVID-free 2020.
• Throw It In!:
  • The roof of the shack next to Ed Harris wasn't supposed to be lifted when Maverick flies past. However, they only had one chance to shoot it, so it was kept in the film.
  • In one inverted sequence, Rooster falls out of his seat because Miles Teller didn't have his straps tight enough. It was kept in the final cut because it helped emphasize that the actors really were in the air.
• Time Marches On: Having the mission be primarily about a tactical bombing mission gels with how the real "Top Gun" Fighter Weapons School was merged with the "Strike U" Naval Strike Warfare Center in 1996 to form what's currently called the Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center.
• Underage Casting:
  • Penny was mentioned in the first film as a fling of Maverick sometime prior to meeting Charlie. Jennifer Connelly was only 16 in 1986, while Cruise was 24.
  • A Freeze-Frame Bonus of Rooster's personal file confirms his age in the film is 35 years old. Miles Teller was 31 when the film was shot.
  • Cyclone is mentioned to have graduated top of his class at TOPGUN in 1988. Jon Hamm would have been 17 years old at the time, meaning Cyclone would have to be a few years older.
• What Could Have Been:
  • In one draft, Maverick was a minor character.
  • Miles Teller beat out Nicholas Hoult and Glen Powell to play Rooster.
    • Austin Butler was offered the opportunity to screentest for the role, but turned it down in favor of playing Tex Watson in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
  • Hangman's role was originally smaller, but Cruise and the producers were so impressed with Glen Powell during his earlier audition for Rooster that they expanded the role just for him.
  • Kenny Loggins actually re-recorded Danger Zone for this but Tom Cruise vetoed it, instead opting for the original version in the opening scene.
  • Tom Cruise campaigned to pilot the F-18 Super Hornet himself during filming, but the Navy wouldn't allow it due to insurance costs.
  • Rumor had it that it would focus upon drone operators.
• Written-In Infirmity: Val Kilmer's throat cancer and its impact on his ability to speak caused Iceman to have similar medical problems in the film. Kilmer's few lines were digitally altered for clarity as he barely spoke them.
• You Sound Familiar: In the Japanese dub, Yasuyuki Kase (Cyclone) and Taiten Kusunoki (Warlock) previously worked in the previous film as Cougar (TV Tokyo dub) and Slider (NTV dub) respectively.

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